This disclosure relates generally to cooling a component of a fan and, more particularly, to cooling a fan motor.
Fans are often used to move air. Fans may, for example, move air through heat exchangers of air conditioning packs on aircraft. The air moved by the fans cools the heat exchangers. Such fans within aircraft are often ram air fans. When the aircraft is stationary, motors are typically used to rotate the rotors of the ram air fans. Thermal energy can buildup within components of fans and cause damage as is known. Motors of ram air fans are particularly prone to such thermal energy build-up.
Some prior art ram air fan designs rely on a radial blower to pull a flow of cooling air through the motor. The radial blower redirects air that has been used to cool the engine radially away from a rotational axis of the fan and into a primary flow path of air through the ram air fan. The flow from the radial blower distorts flow of air along the primary flow path, which makes the ram air fan less efficient. The radial blower is inefficient and is also heavy.